Imaging the Artist

Here is a little snippet from Edith Schaeffer that was posted over at Christianity Today. I like this. In Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, ND Wilson comments that Christians should have a philosophy of artists and art-appreciators (and it is quite fascinating how he sees much abstract art as an outworking on an atheist worldview eg Jackson Pollock, who tried to remove the artist from the art, or the created from the creator - Pollock himself may have denied "the accident" but it is interesting that one critic describes Pollock's works as “mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless”, from Wikipedia). Then from the talk I linked yesterday I gleaned the fact that John Calvin apparently believed that the creative capacity of human beings is proof of the existence of the soul (does anyone know where this comes from?).

IMAGING THE ARTIST

A Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively. We are supposed to be representing the Creator who is there, and whom we acknowledge to be there. It is true that all people are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator. If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation.

Edith Schaeffer in The Art of Life.